…YOGA gives you the Edge in Golf                              By Calley O’Neill

Here’s why and how The Full Body Elixir Yoga/Qigong can transform your game:

First there are the benefits for your health that improve your game. 

Golf is one of, if not the most imbalanced, one-sided games there is.  Yoga is one of, if not the most effective way to correct your alignment, improve your posture, and balance and offset repetitive and one-sided motions.  Along with excellent nutrition and a generous intake of all the minerals your body needs,  (natural sea salts, Rainbow Light Magnesium Calcium +, lots of seaweed, lots of fresh, local, organic vegetables, trace mineral drops in your water) slow flow yoga circulates the life force energy in your body, opens your body, realigns it, reinvigorates it, releases tightness, tension and pain, and renders it more fluid, flexible, elastic and properly aligned.  Yoga, especially the Full Body Elixir, is fluid motion with isometric and core engagement, which protects and your back and strengthens not only your muscles, it promotes full presence in your body.  Slow flow yoga with isometric focus, and constant core activation lubricates and strengthens your joints.  A strong flexible core creates a powerful drive, on every level.  Quite a few of the Elixir movements open up and lubricate your hips and back, and this is essential for men who want juicy vim and vigor.

Slow flow yoga, when done with a thoughtful, personal, bilateral attention, can realign your shoulders, hips and back.  Flowing yoga promotes balance and awareness of where you are in space and how your posture is in the moment – key aspects of a fine golfer.

Additionally, the regular practice of The Full Body Elixir protects you from injury.  Healthy, supply tendons and long, supple muscles tend to be much more resilient, safe muscles and tendons, not bound to tearing or injury.

Let’s face it.  If you feel great, your mind will be more relaxed, and you’ll enjoy the game a lot more; you will feel a whole lot younger, and therefore play a whole lot better.  Vitality translates into accuracy, power and ease.

Second, there are immense benefits for your mind that also improve your game.

Golf is a mind game, an inner game, and a game of visualization, immense concentration and competition.  Lose your concentration and off you go into a sand trap.  Golf is a game and it’s supposed to be fun, as well as engaging.  Presence in the moment means you are not reliving the last round; you are able to let it go and be in the now.

Drishti means focused awareness, attention, or concentration.  You develop drishti in yoga  – one pointed awareness.  Our attention and where and how we place it is our power.  Many are not aware of the fact that attention is our only power.  Directing it is the most valuable of all skills, especially on the course.  Wherever we direct our attention, energy grows, and the ball goes.  We direct and change the course of things by the quality and focus of our attention.  We simply learn or remember to – pay attention.

A regular practice of body/mind yoga as a moving meditation quiets and clears your mind.  Yoga focuses attention and breathing awareness into the present moment, your mind in the body, awakening of your big awareness, who you are, how grateful you are, and where you live – inside your body as pure awareness.  Yoga strengthens your mind, and opens your ability to see clearly and visualize where that ball must land, so that your attention will actually direct the ball to that hole and your mind to personal victory.  Yoga improves your eyesight, so you can see that tiny ball fly on to the green.

Mindful presence – awareness of your stance and your relaxation in it prevents injuries.  When you are your awareness, you are centered, alive, present, and able to use your mind to protect your body and direct the ball.

Many forms of rigid and static yoga are simply not good or right for golfers, especially older golfers.  The Full Body Elixir is perfect for older golfers due to its fluid, isometric, slow flow motion as a meditation and physical rejuvenation practice.  The Elixir promotes youthful vigor, focused energy, positive attitudes, confidence, healthy musculature, strong joints and flexibility.  The regular practice of The Full Body Elixir enhances your game or can bring it back from the sand.

Third, there are immense benefits to the way that you breathe that will improve your game and help you thoroughly enjoy every minute of it.

Conscious, deep breathing is the key to a happy life, a relaxed and present mind, clarity, focus and concentration.  Relaxation of the mind is the key to a great game.  The regular practice of slower, deep breathing dissolves nervous tension that can make for a bad round, and calms you down into your ability to choose a better thought, create a higher outcome and a lower score.  Take long, deep breaths before and during the game.

Under par and over the top – the regular practice of The Full Body Elixir, and breathing meditations can help every aspect of your game, and your life.